1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cashless peripheral device for enabling a gaming system having, for example, gaming machines to use a cashless means of exchange and, in particular, to use tickets having bar-encoded information printed thereon.
2. Statement of the Problem
A need exists to provide a cashless gaming system wherein a medium of exchange is used among gaming machines other than a credit card or cash.
It is well known to use tokens such as dollar tokens by players of gaming machines. In a typical gaming machine environment, a player sits at a gaming machine and inserts coins or tokens into the gaming machine. When a player decides to leave the machine and has a winning cash amount in the machine, the player presses a cash-out button and receives the appropriate number of coins or tokens in a cash-out bin. Trays are conventionally available for players to stack and hold the money. The player can then go to another gaming machine and insert coins or tokens. The use of coins and tokens is awkward for players especially in carrying them from place to place and often represents a means of transmitting diseases among players. It also represents a cost to the casino in providing the trays, the tokens, and the machines to count the tokens at the various cashier locations.
In another approach, cards such as credit cards are used. In the case of credit cards, there exists a strong public policy not to allow a person gambling to have access to the credit limit of their credit card at the various gaming machines. Hence, credit card ATM terminals are provided at various other locations in a casino to allow a person to access the credit available in their credit card and then to have it provide cash to the player. The player can then take the cash to the gaming machine or to the cashier to receive tokens. This step of forcing the gambler to go to a remote location and receive cash causes the gambler to think before using credit available on a credit card in the emotional heat of a game.
In another approach, a player card is used to encode the magnetic stripe on the card with the amount of the cash-out from one gaming machine so that the player can use the imprinted amount to play at another gaming machine.
In yet another approach, a player card is used and all communications with respect to the gambler""s current balance is displayed at a particular machine. For example, upon insertion of a player card at a first machine, if the player has a balance of $500.00, the player can go to a second machine and insert the card and a central computer will display $500.00 available for playing at the second machine.
A need exists to provide a player with a form of money similar to the tokens presently used. This provides the player with a feeling of winning something from a particular machine, which the player can then go to another machine to play another game or to take to a cashier to be redeemed for cash.
3. Solution to the Problem
The present invention provides a solution to the problem by providing the player with a more convenient form of the highly popular tokens so that the player can walk away from a game with a physical item and the satisfaction of winning from a particular game which the player can use to play another game or to xe2x80x9ccash-inxe2x80x9d at a cashier""s location.
A cashless peripheral device is disclosed which connects to a gaming system. The gaming system, for example, could comprise a number of gaming machines interconnected to a central computer. The central computer could also be interconnected to a number of cashier locations. The gaming system issues a xe2x80x9ccash-outxe2x80x9d signal when a player quits playing and receives a xe2x80x9ccash-inxe2x80x9d signal when a player desires to play a game in the gaming system.
The cashless peripheral device of the present invention includes a housing. The housing could be mounted to the side of an individual gaming machine or could be located on the counter at a cashier""s location.
A stack of continuous unprinted tickets is stored in the interior of the housing. A ticket-out transport mounted inside the housing behind a first formed slot is used to transport the tickets out of the ticket storage. A ticket printer mounted inside the housing between the ticket storage and the ticket-out transport is used to print a coded value, such as a bar code, on a ticket in response to a cash-out signal from the gaming system. The ticket-out transport moves the printed ticket from the ticket printer and past a ticket reader, which reads the amount, printed on the ticket. If the printed value corresponds to the value which should have been printed, the ticket-out transport delivers the printed ticket to the player cashing out from the gaming system.
Likewise, when a player, having a printed ticket inserts the printed ticket into a second form slot, a ticket-in transport senses the insertion and moves the ticket past the ticket reader which reads the coded value from the inserted printed ticket. The ticket reader issues a cash-in signal to the gaming system corresponding to the value read from the coded value on the inserted printed ticket. After reading, the ticket is delivered into a ticket bin, which is secured by means of a lock internally in the housing.
In the preferred embodiment, the coded value on the printed ticket is in bar code format and the ticket printer is a thermal bar code printer.
In the preferred embodiment, the ticket-in transport and the ticket-out transport uses a roller transport.
In the preferred embodiment, a ticket cutter is located between the ticket printer and the ticket-out transport and cuts the printed ticket from the adjacent unprinted ticket in the continuous stack of unprinted tickets.
In the preferred embodiment, the ticket-in transport delivers the inserted printed ticket back out from the housing through the second formed slot when the read coded value from the inserted ticket is invalid.